Quinn staff: Furloughs same as last year

Thursday

Jul 22, 2010 at 12:01 AMJul 22, 2010 at 10:15 PM

The Quinn administration said Wednesday that details of the latest state employee furlough program should not have come as a surprise because the same workers were affected by furloughs previously. Gov. Pat Quinn has been criticized because some details of the plan announced late last week appeared to be vague.

Doug Finke

The Quinn administration said Wednesday that details of the latest state employee furlough program should not have come as a surprise because the same workers were affected by furloughs previously.

Gov. Pat Quinn has been criticized because some details of the plan announced late last week appeared to be vague (such as job titles that are exempt) and incorrect (that employee pensions are not affected).

Kelly Kraft, spokeswoman for Quinn’s budget office, said the governor learned during a recent trip to Washington that federal Medicaid assistance the state was relying on probably won’t materialize, forcing the state to further economize.

“He needed to take action. People need to start planning for this. He wanted to give employees the most heads-up notice he could,” Kraft said.

Quinn is committed to ensuring that employees don’t lose pension benefits as a result of the furloughs, Kraft added, although the details are still being worked out. Legislation was approved last spring that allowed furloughed workers to buy pension credits they otherwise would have lost from previous furloughs.

“Employees should not be concerned. It will affect them the same way as last year. There will be legislation this year,” Kraft said.

Quinn didn’t mention that during last week’s announcement, Kraft said, because “he probably just thought everyone thought it would work the same as last year.”

That includes who is covered by the furlough order. It applies to non-union employees, but even some of them, such as 154 workers at the Department of Employment Security and some at 24-hour state facilities, are exempt.

“If people were exempt last year, it would be the same reasoning this year,” Kraft said.

“It’s a knee-jerk reaction to the criticism the governor got over the pay raises he gave to a few people on the staff,” said Sen. Larry Bomke, R-Springfield. “I don’t think there was much of a thought process that went into this. When you don’t think it through, there’s generally an adverse effect on what you are trying to accomplish.”

“It seems like they don’t get the right information before they issue these orders,” said Rep. Raymond Poe, R-Springfield.